1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to toolboxes for vehicles and, more particularly, is concerned with a pickup truck tailgate toolbox assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pickup trucks are often owned and used by those who have a need to carry tools with them in their vehicle. However, due to the limited space in the cabs of most pickups, tools must be kept at another part of the vehicle. Many pickup users have toolboxes attached or unattached to the bed of their trucks. A variety of compartments have also been designed to provide for the safekeeping and storage of tools outside the cabs of these vehicles.
Many such compartments are boxes, covers or other kinds of enclosures located in the bed of pickup trucks, representative examples of which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,075 to Canfield, U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,226 to Heft, U.S. Pat No. 4,938,398 to Hallsen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,519 to Schlachter and U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,829 to Fonseca. While some of the here mentioned prior art may use the tailgate of pickups as part of the enclosure for the storage compartment, none of these compartments are built into the tailgate itself and all of them make it difficult to load or unload items onto or from the bed of the truck.
Other common locations for the storage of tools are bumpers, running boards and the underside of pickup beds. Representative examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,986 to Sams, U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,782 to Helber, U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,507 to Alldredge, U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,856 to Council and U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,437 to Cherry. While much of the here mentioned prior art do have hidden toolboxes, none have an easily accessible, unencumbered, vertical display of tools and none involve tailgates, except for U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,821 to Gillet, which does disclose a combined tailgate and toolbox structure.
The Gillet patent discloses a toolbox with walls on all sides dimensioned to fit within a pickup bed, which has confronting stanchions having top-center suspension pivots supporting the toolbox solely on the tailgate so that the toolbox swings from a closed-storage position within the pickup bed when the tailgate is closed to an open-access position extending beyond the bed when the tailgate is open. However, the Gillet toolbox is not hidden, does not have an easily accessible, unencumbered, vertical display of tools and makes it difficult to load or unload items onto or from the pickup bed.
Consequently, a need still exists for a toolbox with easy access, yet one that is hidden and still permits the user to take full advantage of the wide variety of uses of a pickup truck.